Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread, Rudolf Eickemeyer,
c. 1906, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

“Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.”
He said to them, “When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread
and forgive us our sins
for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,
and do not subject us to the final test.”
(Luke 11:1–4)

Fr. Smith’s Commentary on the Second Reading
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Colossians 2:12–14
July 24, 2022

Despite the fall in regular participation in Sunday services, most Americans still want Jesus to be a part of our lives. Jesus, however, wants to be the totality of our lives. This is a problem and, as we will see in today’s reading from the “Letter to the Colossians,” an ancient one.

Epaphras, a leader in the church of Colossae and its surrounding towns, has come to Paul or his successor to help him combat the corrupting influence of false teachings. He refers to these as “philosophy.” By philosophy he did not mean an academic subject but a way of life. It is hard to discover what the actual beliefs and practices are from the letter. Paul does not seek to be mysterious and his readers no doubt knew exactly what he meant, but there is much assumed and shared knowledge. This is not surprising. Two thousand years from now an article about a burning issue of our day, no matter how clearly written and well translated, will lose the subtleties of the discussion. We will find with this passage from Colossians however that, although we might not be able to define who the false teachers were or the details of their teaching, we can see why Paul and Epaphras were concerned. There are disturbing parallels with today.

Continue reading “17th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Christ’s Call for Our Entire Being” →

Christ in the House of Martha and Mary,
Diego Velázquez, 1618, National Gallery (London)
(About this Image)

“Martha, Martha, you are anxious
and worried about many things.
There is need of only one thing.
Mary has chosen the better part
and it will not be taken from her.”
(Luke 10:41–42)

Fr. Smith’s Commentary on the Second Reading
Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Colossians 1:24–28
July 17, 2022

We continue this week with a reading from the “Letter to the Colossians.” Although for convenience, we will refer to the author as St. Paul, there is some dispute if wrote it himself or if it was the work of a disciple or successor. For our purposes it is important that the leaders of the church at Colossae sought the authority of Paul to combat false teachers. Last week, we read about what the real good news is. Next week we will look at who the opponents were. Today, we will see what we can expect from a leader in the church. Continue reading “16th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Christ in Us” →

The Good Samaritan, Aimé Morot, 1880
Musée des Beaux-Arts de la ville de Paris

Which of these three, in your opinion,
was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?”
He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.”
Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
(Luke 10:36–37)

Fr. Smith’s Commentary on the Second Reading
Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Colossians 1:15–20
July 10, 2022

Our second reading for the rest of the month will be from the “Letter to the Colossians”. We read Colossians once before and an introduction can be found in the commentary for last Easter. It was written around the same time and place as the letter to the Ephesians, which we read last year, and shares some of its themes. There is some debate if Paul wrote these letters himself or if they should be credited to disciple after his death. This is not of great consequence as it does not change the situation or the message. We will for the sake of convenience say the author was Paul. More certain is that it was to a mixed audience of Jewish and Christian born believers and that he is answering philosophical or cosmic questions.

Our reading today is in the first chapter of the letter. It is a song. Indeed, the congregation might well have been familiar with the basic hymn before the letter but the hymn may have been written by Paul.

He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation.

(Col 1:15)

From the Greek word we are translating as image (eikon), we also get icon. Although used more widely now in a secular sense, icons originally were pictures of Jesus, Mary or the Saints in the Eastern Church and were “windows” to the reality of the sacred. Sacrament would come closer to our understanding in the west. When we meet Jesus in the flesh, we meet God. Continue reading “15th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Bringing the World to Fulfillment” →

Photo by Paz Arando on Unsplash

The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few;
so ask the master of the harvest
to send out laborers for his harvest.
(Luke 10:2)

Fr. Smith’s Commentary on the Second Reading
Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Galatians 6:14–18
July 3, 2022

This week, we read the conclusion of Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Paul is writing with great emotion and has let his guard down. As with 2^nd Corinthians, which we read earlier in the year, he will reveal much about himself. Some of this is admittedly unseemly, but they also show a man who loves God and is fiercely protective of the churches he founded.

He was protecting them from what we now call “Judaizing Christians.” These were people who came from Jerusalem and taught that the communities baptized by Paul needed to become more Jewish. The men should be circumcised, and all adopt Torah laws. They had many reasons for this, and Paul answered them throughout the letter. As he concludes, he brings to the fore a disease which would have been in the back of his readers’ minds: Jews were a protected class in the Empire. They alone did not have to offer sacrifice to the emperor. For others failure to do so was a capital crime.

Continue reading “14th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Crucifying the Petty in Us” →

Photo by mana5280 on Unsplash

“Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests,
but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.”
(Luke 9:58)

Fr. Smith’s Commentary on the Second Reading
Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Galatians 5:1, 13–18
June 26, 2022

This Wednesday, we celebrate the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. As we read today from the letter of Paul to the Galatians, we should take to heart Peter’s comment about Paul’s writings: “There are some things in them that are hard to understand.” We need however also remember that Paul was the first intellect of genius to explore the consequences of Jesus’s death and resurrection for himself and for his congregations. These were a mixture of Jews and Gentiles who lived in many places with many cultures. He can, as we have seen repeatedly, become somewhat convoluted so it is refreshing when he is moved by emotion and speaks more clearly. We may lose some precision, but we see more of the forest for the trees. That occurred when we read a sad, indeed depressed, Paul in 2 Corinthians and we will see it today with a very angry Paul in Galatians.

The sections that we will read this and next week, however, are quite gentle and encouraging but we must look at what came before.

Galatia is not a city but an area in Asia Minor (near Ankura in modern Turkey) Paul had lived there and was treated quite well. He taught the people and thought they were well prepared when he left. He discovered however afterwards that other missionaries, perhaps claiming to have been sent by the apostles in Jerusalem, had come to Galatia and told the people that Paul’s teaching was incomplete because he did not require circumcision and other signs of being fully Jewish. Paul feels betrayed and hurt for himself but more concerned for the salvation of his flock and in this letter blasts his opponents personally and demolishes their arguments intellectually.

Continue reading “13th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Leading Us into the World” →

The  Last Supper, Fritz von Uhde,
1886, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart
(About this Image)

In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying,
“This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
(1 Corinthians 11:25)

Fr. Smith’s Commentary on the Second Reading
Corpus Christi
1 Cor 11:23–26
June 19, 2022

This week, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Jesus. Our second reading is from the 1^st letter of St Paul to the Corinthians. We read this letter earlier this year and a general overview can be found in the commentary for January 16, 2022.

This section is especially important for our time but not perhaps for the reasons we may think.

We will first examine the kind of gathering that forms the basis of this meal, then how Jesus changed it and finally how it was abused. We can then see the power and eternal value of Paul’s message.

Continue reading “Corpus Christi – Acting Like Jesus Every Day” →

The Trinity, Andrei Rublev
1411 or 1425–27, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
(About this Image)

Fr. Smith’s Commentary on the Second Reading
Most Holy Trinity
Romans 5:1–5
June 12, 2022

This week, we celebrate the solemnity of the Blessed Trinity, and the church has chosen a selection from the letter of Paul to the Romans as our second reading. We looked at Romans in some detail two years ago and will not review the background again for this passage. (You may find the earlier commentary at Introduction to the Letter to the Romans.) Paul’s style may be somewhat convoluted for our taste, but this passage is well worth following to a most satisfactory indeed inspiring conclusion.

Besides decidedly Pauline themes, we will find some areas of connection with the Gospel readings from St. John of last few weeks. We begin with “Therefore” and can be relatively certain that a conclusion follows. In this case, Paul has developed the concept of justification for four chapters and in chapter five, which we read today, he will tell us the benefits of being justified. Briefly and superficially justified means that a person has a relationship with God. The Greek word from which it derives, dikaiosunē, means righteousness. We are made righteous by the death and resurrection of Jesus. For Catholics, this is a process that requires being led by the Spirit and thus is a this worldly and in that sense very practical experience.

Continue reading “Holy Trinity Sunday – Ministry of Service” →